Signing with a Stylus – The future of document execution?

In Ohio, a judge was faced with the question of whether a Will written and signed on a tablet computer was valid and found that it was. While in the hospital, the deceased, Javier Castro, needed a will drawn up. Since his brother did not have a pen and paper within reach, he wrote up Javier’s Will on a tablet.  Javier later signed this Will in front of his two brothers using a stylus.  Despite the Will being written and signed on a tablet, the judge found it met the legal definition of a Will in Ohio. It would be interesting to see how a case such as this would be decided in Ontario.  In Ontario, the Succession Law Reform Act sets out specific rules governing what constitutes a valid Will, including what constitutes proper execution of a Will. The Ohio case draws our attention to the legislation as it currently stands, and raises the question of whether the legislation will need to be amended in the future to accommodate technology’s role in today’s society. More information on this Ohio case can be found in the following article.